Program Innovation in Practice
Lets learn together from our collective experiences with program innovation. Meyer, Boyce & Meyer define program innovation as "the ongoing process of challenging and adapting to generate new ideas, processes, or products to strengthen impact performance," and contend the process is forward-facing, non-sequential, and developmental. There is no best practice or singular approach to program innovation. Rather, we must learn through reflective practice to understand principles of effective program innovation.
Through analysis of data from a national survey of practitioners from innovative programs, a panel presentation, and interviews with faculty at the University of Minnesota, Meyer, Meyer & Katras have described seven factors that influence what prompts innovation and how the process tends to unfold. Read the article linked below to learn more about each of these factors, and a capitals-based conceptual model that can be used for diagnosing and strengthening program innovation.
Then visit Flipgrid to add your own experiences with program innovation in Extension, and learn from other's stories. We are constantly learning from these stories to enrich our understanding of how to strengthen innovation in Extension.
JOE_v56_5a4.pdfLearn to Take the Leap
The September 2018 Journal of Extension Special Issue on Innovation in Extension includes the article Taking the Leap: Exploring a Theory of Program Innovation. In this article, Meyer, Meyer and Katrass describe a group of seven factors that tend to support or resist innovation in Extension - perceived needs and opportunities, individual characteristics, team characteristics, an approach to innovation, institutional and stakeholder support. They define each of these in detail, illustrate with quotes, and discuss a model and approach for diagnosing how to strengthen innovation. In their words: Our model is a starting point for operationalizing how innovation happens across Extension programs and organizations. Drawing on this model, we in Extension need to continuously ask ourselves questions such as "What are the internal and external forces that are driving our programs?" and "How can we strengthen innovation to meet these needs and possibilities through our programmatic efforts?" It is our hope that our research will fuel discussions around the role of program innovation and set us on a path to better understanding the role of innovation in our work.
Add your Story & Learn from Others
Explore and contribute to the following Flipgrid topics to strengthen your innovation practice. Click on each panel to watch brief video commentary from your colleagues, or contribute your own reflections on program innovation.
Topic 1. Need for Program Innovation What prompted your program innovation? Opportunities for innovation arise when we notice productive tensions between our program design, evaluation, and our efforts to construct strong programs. Briefly describe what prompted you to innovate your programming. Visit https://flipgrid.com/4a9f438f to learn about what prompted others and add your own story.
Topic 2. The Program Innovation Process How did it feel to “take the leap?” Program innovation isn't always a straightforward process. Getting started and seeing what to do next can sometimes be easy, sometimes really difficult. Describe how you got started and what happened in your program innovation process. Visit https://flipgrid.com/fdb850bb to learn about how others felt when taking the leap and add your own story.
Topic 3. Learning from Innovation Practice What can we learn from your experience? There is no best approach or singular pathway toward success in program innovation. The best we can do is grow our understanding of principles of effectiveness from your experiences and others. Describe what worked well or could have been improved in your program innovation. Visit https://flipgrid.com/4b15061f to learn learn from other's experiences and add your own lessons for others.
